Questions Unanswered, Things Best Left Unsaid
by lunziekentraine
Summary: Response to WIKTT challenge "There's Something I've Been Meaning To Tell You..."
1. In Which Students Return, &tc

Author's Note: Anybody know how to persuade ff.net to accept html codes? Or should I just format this in Word with all my italics etc. and will it work here if I do?  
  
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Severus Snape was dreaming.  
  
iThe look in her eyes was terrible. It was the end of the school year. She'd been very quiet for the last two trimesters of school, and he'd almost been worried, although he had had other distractions.  
  
"Please, Severus, I need your help-"/i  
  
He woke up with a start. All he could remember was a pair of dark, terrified eyes, but he knew that he was not the reason they were scared.  
  
He lay back in bed, trying to remember his dream. He noticed sunlight peeking in behind his curtains, and cursed under his breath when he realized he'd overslept. It was the first day of term, and by the look of the light, he had only a few hours until the train would reach Hogsmeade. He still hadn't finished restocking his private stores for the new year. He hurriedly dressed for his trip to Diagon Alley.  
  
hr  
  
As the train pulled out of King's Cross Station on September First of her seventh year, Hermione Granger thought back to a conversation between her and her parents on the eve of her first time on this train, six years earlier...  
  
i"Hermione, darling, could you come in here for a few minutes? There's something I've been meaning to tell you... well, your father and I, really..."  
  
Hermione followed her mother's voice into the living room, the night before she left for Hogwarts the first time. "What's up, Mum?"  
  
Mark and Carol Granger looked at each other for a moment, and at an unnoticed signal from Carol, Mark began talking.  
  
"Mina, my dear child, there's something we've been meaning to tell you for quite some time. We've been talking about how we were going to tell you, and there really isn't any easy way of doing this –"  
  
Hermione interrupted. "Please don't tell me that you're not letting me go to Hogwarts, after all my preparations-!"  
  
"No, no, nothing like that, dearheart. That's not the problem at all... although I suppose that is why we're telling you this now..."  
  
"Oh, Mark, you're upsetting her. I knew I had to tell her this myself, you're going about it all wrong. Mina, love, I don't know if I'm ready to tell you this, but I think you're ready to hear it. And your father is right, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it and pretend it sounded pretty – Hermione, dear, well, you're adopted..." Carol Granger unexpectedly found herself in tears, at finally saying it aloud to her daughter, to the girl she'd raised from birth, who she loved with all her heart.  
  
Hermione, to say the least, was somewhat startled by her mother's news. Later, over a midnight tea, her mother told her everything she knew – not that there was very much. Chances were that her father was a wizard, at least; the adoption agency had disappeared at most six months after the paperwork was finished, and she couldn't have been more than seven months old at the time. They had never met her mother. The man who they assumed was her father had been very tall, with long black hair, dark eyes, and a velvet voice; more than ten years after she'd seen him, Carol Granger couldn't remember anything more than that to tell her daughter.  
  
"Remember, Mina, that we will always love you, even if you aren't our blood – and maybe you'll find a way to learn who your real family is." At this, Carol's eyes grew mutinous on her again, and she had to reach for a napkin to stifle a fresh wave of tears.  
  
"Oh come on, now, mum, you'll always be my mother, no matter what..." Hermione gave her mother a hug, and they fell asleep on the couch together.  
  
She had been very out-of-sorts on the train the next day, and matters hadn't continued very well the first two months at her new school, either./i  
  
Hermione came back to herself with a start, hearing something she hadn't really been expecting to hear from her companions on the train.  
  
"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Ostriches rule the world! It was in a poll!"  
  
She couldn't stop staring at her friends, as her instant audio replay convinced her that she had in fact heard what she thought she had. "What on earth are you three talking about?"  
  
She saw Harry roll his eyes at Ginny, who blushed and looked down at her hands. Ron was oblivious, and proceeded to explain that he and Harry were having an argument about ostriches and lobsters. Somehow it was related to Quidditch. He didn't realize that he'd completely lost Hermione after the first sentence.  
  
She leaned back in her seat with a sigh and pretended to pay attention to her friend, waiting for the train to reach Hogsmeade. She didn't even notice when Ginny got up to leave the car.  
  
hr  
  
Outside in the passageway of the train, sixteen-year-old Virginia Weasley rocked back on her heels at the sight that met her gaze. Draco Malfoy, a young man who once had the misfortune to be turned into a ferret, and now bore little resemblance to the prat he had been at that age, was not iquite/i yelling at his companions of the past six years. He looked incredibly impatient as he hissed at Crabbe and Goyle to shut up, to quit trying to think, to just leave him be, dammit. Ginny swayed as the scene was superimposed by a wisp of memory – iDraco yelling, Lucius the one hissing now, slamming doors, Narcissa weeping/i – and realized that the only reason she hadn't fallen was because the very object of her contemplations had caught her. She blushed a furious shade of red, outshining her own hair. She looked into the grey eyes that were inches away from her own. Draco's eyebrows were knit, his eyes filled with a look she'd seen before, though not from him – she never would have expected to see it from him – confusion, a bit of concern, and just a touch of thoughtfulness. For just a moment, he looked almost innocent.  
  
Ginny pushed herself back up to her feet and pulled away from him. Glancing behind him, she was relieved to discover that Crabbe and Goyle had missed her near fall due to a fortuitous distraction by the lunch cart. She looked back at Draco and saw the same disdainful sneer that usually inhabited his face.   
  
"What's wrong, Weasley? Has your family gotten so poor you can't even afford to keep your balance anymore?" As a joke, it barely deserved a groan; as an insult, it wasn't much worse. Ginny decided to ignore it completely.   
  
She stepped back, about to return to the compartment holding her brother and friends, but she had a nagging feeling that the scene in the passage wasn't finished. She took a quiet breath to calm herself. "Malfoy." She nodded to him, trying to tell her eyes to thank him for catching her. Perhaps it worked; at any rate, his eyes widened for a moment, almost in respect, and then he, too, stepped back, and in a much more subdued voice replied.  
  
"Weasley." He nodded back to her.  
  
She dropped her eyes to the floor for a moment, then looked back up at him, feeling one corner of her mouth twitching up into the start of a grin, and hurriedly turned down the hallway before she broke out into a smile. There were few things that traveled as fast as gossip amongst teenagers, and she knew that if she'd openly smiled at Draco Malfoy without gloating over some trick she'd played on him, tongues would be wagging for half the year. She made her exit, and quietly sat next to Hermione for the rest of the journey, ignoring Ron, Harry, and Hermione alike, and thinking about what she'd seen.  
  
hr  
  
Snape was having a terrible day.  
  
His suppliers in Diagon Alley had been sluggish, and his temper was smoldering. His trip to Kansas City was worse.  
  
He'd been planning for some time now to invest in a Muggle chemistry set. Ideas for several potions that utilized ingredients not found in the Wizarding world had been fermenting in the back of his mind for years, and an article published in last week's iArs Alchemica/i had pushed him to hurry up his timeframe. Mortimer Munkfrede, a notable German/American Potions Master, had been experimenting with Muggle chemistry himself, and had published an article which had rather infuriated Snape – infuriated him because the ideas were ones he'd had years before, but had never bothered to publish. Now, Munkfrede was rapidly becoming more famous than any Potions Master for the last half-century, and for nothing that Snape hadn't already considered (and in some cases, discarded) nearly a decade ago.  
  
He muttered under his breath as he pushed through unfathomable crowds in the Plaza. Why on earth were all these Muggles out and about? A sign in a nearby shop caught his eye, answering his question – "Labor Day Sale! Up to 50% Off Selected Items!" He growled and raised his eyes to the heavens, asking why this had to be happening to him today. He ducked into a nearby restaurant in hopes of catching a quiet moment before finishing up his shopping.  
  
And he found one, although he would have sworn someone was breaking a statute against using magic in the Muggle world to provide for it. He walked upstairs to the bar and did a double take; the woman standing behind it cleaning glasses was the spitting image of Rosmerta from the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. He looked at her rather quizzically for a moment, and her rather large grin at seeing his expression didn't really help his mood any. He seated himself at one end of a long table in the center of the room, and waited as she set down the glass she was working on to come over to the table.   
  
"Hey there, handsome. I seem to have lost my name, can I have yours?" The gleam in her eyes was enough to let him forgive the horrible line, and he almost smiled at her.  
  
"Sev- I mean, my name's Stephen, and I cannot believe that a lady so lovely could possibly have forgotten her own name. I beg that you reveal it to me, for surely you must have a lovely name to go with your lovely face." Hah. That would show her. He could still be a gentleman when he chose, although he did not often reveal this side of himself.  
  
She laughed outright. "My, aren't you a cheeky one? Well, Stephen, my name is Iris, and this is my bar, so tell me what you want, and if I feel like giving it to you, I shall." She continued to grin at him.  
  
"Well, beautiful Iris, I am sure that you know the contents of your pub far better than I possibly could, so I beg that you offer what relief you deem proper for a poor man stuck shopping in the middle of a Labor Day crowd." He smiled back at her, wishing that the expression didn't feel so out of place. Perhaps this day would improve yet - if he managed to make it back to Hogwarts before the start-of-term feast, at any rate.  
  
He spent a rather enjoyable hour and a half flirting with the barmaid, and consuming rather a better meal than he had expected. She glanced over at him when he had finished, taking a long look at him. He returned her gaze evenly.  
  
She smiled at him again, a quieter smile this time. "Well, Stephen, I think you'll find that most of the crowds have gone now. I hope the rest of your shopping expedition goes more smoothly without them. And I hope I'll see you soon."  
  
She walked him to the register, where he tipped her nearly two-thirds the price of the meal, and then bowed over her hand. "Thank you, madam, for a most enjoyable meal. I shall certainly strive to return before another year has passed, but should I fail to do so, I devoutly hope to see you a year from today." And he turned around and walked to the door, noting the rather bemused smile on her face as he straightened. "Iris." He tipped an imaginary hat in her direction, smiled once again, and stepped out the door.  
  
He found himself in a much better mood indeed as he finished his shopping. Iris's prediction was right, as the majority of the crowds had indeed disappeared. Around the corner, he found a school supply store, and managed to convince the clerk that he had a son who was very interested in chemistry, and who wanted a chemistry set of his own for the beginning of the school year. Snape left the store, no longer in possession of most of his Muggle money, but far richer so far as he was concerned – the clerk had been very helpful, indeed, to the point he was surprised that "Stephen" hadn't arranged for his purchases to be shipped. In fact, Snape was practically staggering under the weight of his purchases, and was relieved when he reached a quiet alley where he could Disapparate back to Hogsmeade.  
  
After briefly stopping in at the Three Broomsticks to ask Rosmerta if she had a twin sister, at which she burst into peals of laughter and refused to give him any more answer than that, Snape finally returned to Hogwarts, the whistle of the Hogwarts Express carrying to his ears on the breeze.  
  
Even being able to levitate his new toys to the dungeons and his private laboratory could not speed his journey enough, and Snape was rather resigned to being tardy to the start-of-term feast after all. It wasn't as though he ever tried to be late; in fact, he usually strove to be punctual. Somehow, however, he was almost always late to this particular feast, despite Dumbledore's best efforts to entice his presence. At any rate, Snape was most unwilling to just leave his new toys lying about like so much rubbish – who knew what the house elves would do, given the opportunity? The Muggle chemistry set looked like nothing in the Wizarding world, and Snape was not at all looking forward to the chance of having the lot of it thrown out. He organized his new purchases as best he could in the time he had, and hurried to the Great Hall.   
  
He'd timed his entrance better than he thought – most of the students were already in their places, with only the First Years waiting to enter. He made his way to his normal place at the far end of the High Table, and waited for Dumbledore's speech and for dinner. After Iris's lovely midday meal, he was not nearly so hungry as he normally was, but even so, he would not have been allowed a moment's peace if he'd tried to skip the first meal of the term.  
  
Snape watched as the First Years made their first entrance to the Great Hall, idly guessing to himself who was Muggleborn, who was Pureblood, who would be sorted into which house, and who would be most likely to melt cauldrons. He was not looking forward to those, and was privately relieved that none looked likely to be as bad as Longbottom. He waited impatiently as Minerva McGonagall called them each by name, and as the Sorting Hat dealt with them as it saw fit. He dutifully applauded whenever someone was sorted into Slytherin, but otherwise couldn't be bothered. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief when they were done and Dumbledore stood up.  
  
hr  
  
The old wizard looked around the Hall for a moment, taking in the rather large number of new students – nearly eighty, a number which added considerably to the school's population, The castle had been rather aggravated lately, what with having to expand all the dormitories and several of the classrooms. Dumbledore fervently hoped that the Wizarding population wasn't expanding simply because it expected to be severely cut down in the next few years' time, but he was afraid that was exactly why. There were stranger and older magics in the land than even those he knew of, and it would not surprise him in the least if that were indeed the case. He only hoped that this time, Nature would be proven wrong.  
  
He came back to himself after a moment's hesitation, and cleared his throat. "Well, my students, I bid you welcome back to these halls, and I hope that you had enjoyable and uneventful summers. I'd like to remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden, and any students caught out in the forest will be serving detention with Argus Filch, our caretaker. Also, the Restricted Section of the Library is currently unavailable to anyone but the faculty, as the castle has decided to update its books and they are not yet catalogued. Prefects will take the First Years to their dorm rooms after the meal. I invite you to enjoy the feast!" And with those words, all hell broke loose in the Great Hall as the students took him at his word. 


	2. In Which We Meet Katharine

Chapter 2, In Which We Meet Katharine, and Hermione Has An Idea  
  
After the feast had been cleared away, Dumbledore stood again. Hermione looked up at the Headmaster, a smile on her lips, although it did not quite reach her eyes. She was rather upset at the news that the Restricted section of the library was off bounds, as she had been hoping to start some research there. Her memory while on the train had inspired her to start looking for the true identity of her parents.  
  
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I have several announcements still to make, so if I might have your attention please? Good. First of all, I'd like to announce the identity of our Head Boy and Girl, as I'm sure everyone is quite curious. As it happens, our Board of Governors has decided that those who are not currently students at our school would better fill these positions. Fortunately, I had final say, along with your professors, on deciding who would take these positions. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, your Head Boy, until we have a different term for the role, will be Fred Weasley, and your Head Girl will be Katharine LaFontaine. I am aware that this is rather strange for most of you to accept, especially as Miss LaFontaine has never been a student at Hogwarts, but I am confident you will all welcome her here. Your prefects will now make themselves known, as they will discover their badges... now."  
  
Hermione smiled up at Fred and Katharine, and then glanced down at herself, discovering that not only did she have no Head Girl badge, but also no Prefect badge. Although she knew she should be upset at this, having worked so hard on her grades in hopes of being at least one of the two her seventh year – even she wasn't convinced of the possibility of being both – she also knew that not having those duties would allow her more time for her research. She had also decided to be as secretive about her search as possible; she did not want to reveal her search before she knew what the results would be, lest she find that some terrible Dark wizard or witch would decide to claim her again after all.  
  
Besides, she'd been a prefect in her sixth year, and that would look well enough on her college applications.  
  
She looked around at the Gryffindor table to see who had taken what others might consider to be "her" spot, and was surprised at Dumbledore's choices – Lavender Brown and Neville Longbottom. She blinked several times, considering his reasons, and realized that as usual, he had more than one purpose in everything he did. Hopefully, Lavender would become more responsible, and she could only pray that Neville developed some backbone from this. Perhaps he'd be all right in Potions this year after all.  
  
hr  
  
After dinner, Dumbledore asked for Katharine and Fred to follow him up to his office. After passing by the guardian (the password, for the moment, was Pop Rocks), he invited them both to take a seat, and offered tea. After a few minutes of polite small talk, he got to the point.  
  
"Now, Mr Weasley, and Miss LaFontaine, I'm certain that both of you are curious as to what your new duties will be. Miss LaFontaine, I'm sure that you will be more familiar with this type of duties, as you were a prefect at El Dorado Academy. Mr Weasley, rest assured that while the reputation of you and your twin brother for mischievousness was a factor in my selecting you as our Head Boy, you will still be expected to fulfill the classic duties of the position. For tonight, however, I would like merely for you to show Miss LaFontaine around the castle. Classes commence tomorrow, as will your duties. Therefore, I request the presence of both of you immediately following breakfast tomorrow morning, and until then, I hope you have a good evening." And with that, he dismissed them.  
  
Katharine followed Fred out of the Headmaster's office with a very bemused expression on her face, as he noticed when he turned to her at the bottom of the stairs. "You all right there, then?" he asked.  
  
She shook her head clear of her thoughts, looked up at him, and smiled as she replied. "Is he always like that? Acting all innocent, like your friend's grandfather or a demented Santa Claus, and then he'll come out of nowhere to give you your walking orders?"  
  
Fred grinned. "Yeah, more or less. It's all right though, as long as you don't have a hero complex." His face shut down for a moment. "Anyway," he continued, perking back up, "I'm Fred of course, and you'll meet my twin George as soon as I can get you down to Hogsmeade. He's running the shop for now. If you like, we can start the tour now... d'you mind if I take you to Gryffindor Tower first? Only I didn't get a chance to talk to Ron nearly all summer."  
  
"Who's Ron? I don't mind, I mean, I'm just curious... it's going to be hard trying to meet an entire school full of new people when I'm supposed to be taking care of them, too..."  
  
"Ah, don't worry about that. It's really not as hard as you'd think, you'll probably know everybody's name in a month at worst, and there aren't too many troublemakers. And Ron's my kid brother, about two years younger than George and me, and then there's my kid sister Ginny, she's a year younger than him. Come on then, let's go!" Fred grabbed Katharine's hand, pulling her with him as he headed the quickest way to the tower.  
  
After all, there were only three hair-raising shortcuts this way, and she'd need to learn them after all, wouldn't she?  
  
They came to a stop outside the Fat Lady's portrait. She stared in fascination as Fred gave the password – she missed it in her concentration, but she knew she'd learn it later, if it hadn't changed already – and then was tugged on inside to the Gryffindor common room. She craned her neck to see the back of the portrait, which looked the same as the back of any of her grandmother's paintings. While she'd seen many moving photographs, not to mention countless movies, she'd never seen a Wizarding portrait. One of the downsides of being raised in America, she supposed.  
  
"Katie? Katie! I knew it was you! How've you been?"  
  
Katharine snapped back to herself with a start. "Oh my gods, Mina? Is that you? Holy crap, look at you, you're all grown up! You're gorgeous!" She rushed over to give her childhood friend a hug. Hermione laughed, then, and when Katie pulled back a little, she pointed over Katie's shoulder at the Head Boy, Fred, who was completely flabbergasted.  
  
He looked back and forth between the two girls, his gaze finally coming to rest on Katharine. "Katharine? Why did Hermione call you Katie?"  
  
Katie glanced at her friend, and couldn't help but laugh a little at Fred's expression. "Well, Fred, Mina here is one of my best friends from childhood. Actually, my parents were best friends with hers, from the time our parents were in college. We practically grew up together, even though I'm a few years older than she is. I just haven't seen her in years, and never for more than a weekend during the summer. Haven't spent a decent amount of time with her since she moved here to England, and that was what, ten years ago? As for her calling me Katie, well, that's been my nickname for forever. You can call me Katie, if you like..." She trailed off, at that.  
  
Fred blinked several times as he stored that bit of information, and then grinned at them again. "Right, well, that was unexpected. You hiding any other secrets like that?" He turned his head towards the stairs for a moment. "Oy, Ron! Ginny! Where are you?" Fred turned back to Katie and Hermione again. "Well, are you?"  
  
She couldn't help but smirk at him a little. "I'm not sure, I guess we'll have to see, won't we?" And then, never one to back down, she winked at him.  
  
Any response that Fred may have been planning to make was interrupted by the clatter of two young men running down the stairs, followed by the more sedate progress of one's sister. "Fred! How the bloody hell did you end up Head Boy? I mean, you didn't even finish your seventh year!"  
  
Fred blushed. "Language, Ron! For chrissakes, would you shut up?" He looked over at the girls with an expression indicating he expected impending doom.  
  
Katie raised an eyebrow. She looked at the small group of friends, most of whom she didn't know, and asked the question it was clear she was expected to ask. "And how did that happen, anyway? I was under the impression that a person didn't graduate here without passing seventh year, or are the schools so very different from the ones in America?"  
  
Hermione took pity on the boys. Fred was blushing because Ron had put his foot in it, Ron was blushing because he realized he'd done something stupid, Harry looked pale – probably remembering just why it was that Fred and George hadn't stayed to take their NEWTs – and Ginny just looked distracted, staring at Katie. "Well, you see, Katie, two years ago, we had the most horrible DADA teacher in the world-" "DADA? What the hell is a DADA?"  
  
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course, I know I must have mentioned the job in a letter at some point, didn't I? Anyway, pay attention. So there was this horrible woman named Umbridge, and she was making everybody's life completely miserable. I mean, she wasn't even really teaching us anything, either, just studying out of a book. We've had the worst string of DADA teachers of anywhere, really, it's just terrible. Anyway, at the end of the year, right before the OWLs and NEWTs, Fred and George got completely sick of it – she was on a massive power trip, too, because of the Ministry's having appointed her, and she was absolutely beastly to everybody – and they told her off in the middle of everyone, and said that rather spend a moment more under the same roof as her they'd quit school and start up their own business. I think Professor Dumbledore was actually rather proud of them, really."  
  
Katie chuckled. "Well, Mina, I see that you still can't tell a story without rambling, and do you ever take a breath, anyway? No doubt that's not exactly how the story went, but I think I get the point – and Fred, I can't say I blame you for walking out on a situation like that. Personally, I'd probably get in a lot more trouble and get detention for a year for beating up a teacher with a big stick. So who is everybody else, then? I'm guessing the guy who stuck his foot in his mouth is your brother Ron, and by rights the redheaded girl standing next to him is probably your sister Ginny... but who's the brunette, here?"  
  
hr  
  
Ginny didn't pay attention as Hermione explained Fred's seventh year, and barely noticed when her name was mentioned. Looking at the black-haired woman standing across the carpet, a wealth of images was crossing her mind.  
  
IA short woman with once-red hair, now shot through with white, was walking down a street with Katie. "Dear, I'm so proud of you that you're going to Hogwarts, but be careful, it's a more dangerous place than it seems. I think you'll be happy to find that Mark and Carol's daughter is still there – it's her seventh year now, and I hope she'll be happy to see you. But you knew that..."  
  
"What's wrong, Mom? Something must be, you don't chatter like that anymore unless something's up..."  
  
"Well, dear, you're going to see one of your cousins there, and he might seem much different than he did last time you saw him. Most of the family doesn't know him, not my family anyway, he's on your father's side... it's the Lynns, they're not really Lynns, but your father insists I not say their actual name. Once you see him, since I'm sure everyone will try to turn you against him, I think you'll understand. His father was never a terribly pleasant man, and Michel's worried about him..."  
  
"What's Dad worried about?"  
  
"Well, it's just that his father isn't a very nice man at all anymore, and your father and I are hoping you can keep an eye on your cousin. I'm sure you'll know what to do, sweetheart, you always do..."/I  
  
"What? I'm sorry... what did you ask?" Ginny shook herself. II need to stop this, I'm going to fall and crack my head on the table if this keeps up.../I She looked up apologetically at her friends. She noticed that Katie was looking at her rather quizzically, and just shrugged a little, then dropped the other girl's gaze.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it, it was nothing. Actually, Fred, don't you need to show me the other Houses, too? Although... do you think you could avoid showing me too many of those secret passages, this time? I don't think my head's on straight from the last one yet." The group laughed, forgetting about Ginny's quietness for the moment, except for Katie. She decided to keep an eye out on the girl, thinking that she could probably enlist Mina's help for some of it. "Okay, everyone, it was very nice to meet you, and I hope I can maybe join you for lunch tomorrow – but for now, Fred, why don't you show me around the rest of the castle?" She caught his arm and 'encouraged' him to escort her out.  
  
Fred gave Katie a running commentary on the characteristics of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws as he led her on a strange path through the castle. More than once, the stairs changed on them, necessitating a change in route. Katie didn't really mind. Exploring the castle was fun; her old school, in a small town in Kansas, had been nothing like this old castle, and Fred was good company, besides. She was keeping an eye out for her cousin, and trying to remember the last time she'd seen someone with an expression like Ginny's – glazed over, but with the eyes moving rapidly – because she knew she /I seen that before. She just couldn't remember when.  
  
"All right, so that was Ravenclaw. Just one last house, and then I'll show you where your rooms are. Unfortunately, the only house left is Slytherin." Fred's tone pulled the rest of Katie's attention back to him.  
  
"Slytherin? What's wrong with them?" By his tone, something must be, and she was rather curious to learn what he thought.  
  
"What isn't wrong with them, more like. Half of them are probably involved with the Dark Lord in one way or another, or at least their families are. Their Headmaster teaches Potions – his name is Snape, and he's such a greasy git. Loves to take points off everybody else, but lets them get away with murder. Bloody hell, we're here already – look, I'll tell you more later, just be polite to them, you should be okay, they'll probably want to make fun of me anyway." He pulled her up to the doorway, poked his wand at the door, and muttered something under his breath that she supposed was the password. Although, it sounded suspiciously like an unlocking charm...  
  
Katie tried not to grin as Fred led her into the fourth Common Room of the evening. Decorated in silver, green, and black - Inot really my colors, I suppose/I - there were only a few students lounging around. She glanced around the room, taking note of faces and sneers. Their entrance had not gone unnoticed.  
  
"Well, well, well, if it isn't yet another Weasley. What's wrong, did you decide to have another go at school?"  
  
"Hello, ferret. I'm just showing the Head Girl around, so shut your face and we'll be out of here in a few."  
  
Katie turned around to see who Fred was talking to. She frowned for half a moment, taking off the years in her eyes, and – "Draco? Is that you?"  
  
The blond young man visibly startled. "Kate? What the hell are you doing at Hogwarts? With a Weasley, no less?"  
  
She smiled and walked past Fred, who was once again flabbergasted. "Silly boy, don't you ever pay attention during dinner? Dumbledore asked Dad to ask me if I wanted to be the new Head Girl here, since somebody on his Board of Governors was pushing for non-students. Seems like he wanted Fred here for some reason, and thought that if I came, I could sort of balance things out for a few people who might have a problem with it otherwise. How have you been, anyway, I haven't heard from you in ages!"  
  
hr  
  
Draco smiled at his cousin. Not only was it a pleasant surprise to realize that the new Head Girl probably wouldn't become a complete Potter sycophant, but it was wonderful to see her again. The opportunity to annoy Weasley just made things a little bit better.  
  
"Well, Kate, I've been as well as can be expected, I suppose. I didn't hear that you were coming from Kansas for the year, and I left early during dinner. It's wonderful that you're here." He glanced at her Head Girl badge, and did a double take. "I didn't realize that they'd keep your EDA colors for your badge, but I'm glad – purple always was a good color for you." He glanced behind her at Fred, who was turning a strange shade of puce. "Don't worry, Weasley, I know where my cousin's rooms are, I'll take her back there... So do feel free to leave Slytherin territory. Now."  
  
Draco kept his eyes on Fred's face, noting that he glanced over at Kate, although he didn't see that her faintly worried eyes were locked on his own face. "It's all right, Fred, I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow. I'd like to catch up with Draco anyway. Go ahead."  
  
Fred shook his head at her for a moment, and then turned away with a sigh. "Fine, I'll see you tomorrow. Good night." He paused a moment more at the door, then slipped through. It shut itself behind him.  
  
Draco turned his attention back to his cousin. "All right, then, Kate, follow me. Let's go talk in my rooms. Finally have some of my own... a perk of being Prefect, I suppose." He pulled her hand to his arm and led the way. 


	3. In Which Katie Gets Lost And A Cat Helps

In Which Katie Gets Lost, And A Cat Helps Her  
  
His glare got them past the remaining students without comment. She watched him, from the corner of her eye. A faintly worried frown imperceptibly found a home on her face. "Draco?"  
  
"Hush, we can talk in my room." They reached the door, and she waited while he took quite a few wards off it. They stepped inside, and she found a seat while he locked and warded the door again. He turned to face her, and they just looked at each other for a moment. A tall blond man with grey eyes; broad in the shoulders, but wiry from years spent playing Quidditch. A woman with long curls of raven hair, green eyes, equally pale and slender. "Kate-"  
  
She interrupted him, jumping up to throw her arms around him. "Oh, Wesley, what the hell have they done to you?"  
  
The use of her childhood nickname for him, taken from a movie they had watched together, was his undoing. Tears sprang to his eyes. He let his head fall to her shoulder. "Merlin, Katie, I've missed you so much..."  
  
He let loose, sitting next to her, his head on her shoulder. He told her of his father's expectations, of his mother's retreat from them both, of the years spent being shown up and humiliated at school by a group that broke any rule they found inconvenient - and how, far from being punished, that group was rewarded for their actions. He told her of the pain he felt, watching those with friends, when all he had were a group of flunkies; incredibly stupid ones, at that. He told her of his summer spent in solitude, thinking about the results of his father's plans for him, and his refusal to continue cooperating with them. He told her of the inevitable fight, just days before, and of how he'd been so lonely, and how there was no one at school for him to trust, and he told her how very glad he was that she was there.  
  
And he cried, into the shoulder of her robes, as she held him. "I hate them, Kate, I really do. I hate them all."  
  
She finally spoke, at that. "Who, Draco? And why do you hate them?"  
  
"Everyone." He practically hissed. "Father, for what he's done to me, and what he wants me to do. Mother, for shutting herself away, and never trying to stand up to him. Snape - I can't even trust my own Head of House, because according to Fa- no, to hell with that, he doesn't deserve the name. According to /i, Snape is a Death Eater himself. I can't trust Dumbledore, because I'm sure that he believes that I'm one, and then there are those damn /i..." She was fairly certain that her cousin did not know of her friendship with Mina, and knew that it would be unwise for her to reveal it at this time. Indeed, she would need to be very careful around her cousin, if she wished to continue holding his trust. Therefore, she did what was in both his nature and her own, in such a situation - she dissembled. "Which Gryffindors?"  
  
"What, other than all of them? The Weasleys, and Granger, and -" the loathing in his voice grew very pronounced - "/i... I hate him, Kate, I hate him almost worse than I hate Lucius... I can't stand him. He breaks the rules, he nearly gets himself killed, he nearly gets everybody else killed too, and blunders his way through encounters where he barely manages to survive, and everyone acts as though he's a miracle worker, as though he can do no wrong, and they praise him and reward him, and let him skate through his classes, and almost everyone in the school adores him. I hate him..." By now, his voice had faded, until there was little left in it but sorrow, broken sobs, and a weariness that did not belong to a sixteen- year-old.  
  
"Ah, sweet Wesley, such a burden the world has put on you... come here, dearheart," she said, holding him closer, in a position where she could pet him more easily. Katie was a firm believer in the healing powers of physical contact, even without any magic behind it, and more often than not would not bother with the magic at all. She rubbed his back lightly with one hand, combing her fingers through his hair with the other, and started humming lightly under her breath, the words just barely inaudible. She felt him start to relax, his head back on her shoulder, and breathe more easily. She continued her song, wishing that she had her guitar with her. As the song ended, she moved to another one by the same singer, a man whose passing she had mourned mere days after she had first heard his music, as he had died around the time of her birth.  
  
"What are you singing, Katie?" His voice was much quieter now. She almost didn't hear him, but stopped her humming for a moment.  
  
"Hmm? Oh... a song that's made me think of you for a while now, I suppose..." and she sang a little bit of it for him. "Don't be shy, you learn to fly, and see the sun when day is done, if only you'll see... just what you are, beneath a star, that came to stay one rainy day in autumn for free... Yes, be what you'll be..." She slipped back to humming, promising to herself that she would play the song for him in its entirety soon.  
  
"Missed you, Kate..." and with that, he drifted off to sleep. It was all she could do not to cry, herself, as she realized two things. One, how badly he had been hurt by so many people in his life; and two, that even after all that, even though he had not seen her in over five years, he still trusted her enough to fall asleep in the same room with her. She sat with him for a few minutes longer, to be sure that he would not wake when she moved him, as she hummed a different song to herself for a few minutes, until tears sprang to her eyes anyway. IOh, Alex... I miss you.../I  
  
She wiped the tears away then, and reached her hand towards her cousin. "/I," she muttered, and watched as his body slowly floated from the couch to his bed. She quickly pulled the covers down, and let him down gently onto the mattress. She wasn't about to strip her own cousin, and couldn't remember the charm she'd once read that would allow her to undress him magically under the covers, so she left him in the majority of his uniform and covered him with the duvet. She stood over the bed for a few moments, looking down at him, before shaking her head and sighing, and walking over to let herself out the door. Fortunately, the wards were not nearly so hard to get through from the backside, or she might have been in trouble.  
  
She slipped through the door, closing it again, grateful that not she had not had to take down all the wards in order to get out. The hour had grown much later than she would have wished, but at least that meant that the passage to the Slytherin Common Room was completely empty, and mostly dark besides. She thought for a moment, and then placed her hands on the doorframe to her cousin's room, putting up several wards that even her old Charms teacher would have been proud of – as they were attached to the frame, rather than the door itself, they would not be upset by its opening and closing, and should last most of the school year if not taken down specifically. They would also unleash a rather nasty set of hexes on anyone foolish enough to try to enter the room without a specific invitation. She made certain, however, that the new wards would not only recognize her, but would recognize her cousin as well; it would not do for him to be unable to enter his own chambers. On the other hand, she felt protective enough that she honestly did not care if the Head of his House – or the Headmaster himself – tried to force their way in. She had no doubt that they would succeed in doing so, but she was damned if she wasn't going to make their lives damned uncomfortable if they tried.  
  
She might have spent most of her life in Kansas, but she had also lived in a few big cities, and had been an actress herself for quite some time – and spending a few years surrounded by actors and the theatre made one quite accomplished at being able to tell when someone was lying to you, or acting in any way. Besides, her cousin was five years younger than she was. She knew that he had been telling her the truth, in all its painful glory, and Katharine LaFontaine had three heritages that insisted on protecting one's family, although some of them were broader in their definitions of "family" than others.  
  
She stepped away from her cousin's door, and carefully walked to the entrance to the Common Room. Relieved to find that there were no students in it at this hour, she quickly crossed the floor and let herself out of the tower, into the main school grounds. And stopped short, as the realization of her predicament struck her – she not only didn't know how to get to her rooms from Slytherin tower, she didn't know how to get to her rooms at all.  
  
"Oh, by the god of pink shag carpeting," she muttered, very cross with herself. She started to walk towards what she hoped would eventually become the Headmaster's office, attempting to stay in the shadows and not tempt Fate too much. After all, Fate was a crabby bastard who cheated at every game he played, and was never a gracious loser – the safest way was to avoid tempting him.  
  
She turned a corner, and paused her steps; in a spot of moonlight – in the exact center of that spot, in fact – a cat was sitting, looking directly at her. She stifled a snort of amusement at the cat's artistic posing, and knelt, still in the shadows. "Hey, there, beautiful one. I don't suppose you know where my rooms are? I certainly don't, and I seem to have lost all my guides this evening. I can, however, promise you that I am well aware of the proper way of petting a cat, if you should like to barter?"  
  
The cat – she couldn't tell what it looked like, in the dark, for even with the moonlight, everything was bleached to gray – continued to look at her for a long moment, then sneezed once, shook its head, stood and turned, looking over its shoulder at her briefly, before walking off. She crossed her fingers, bit her lip, and followed it quietly.  
  
She quickly grew convinced of one of two things: either the cat did, in fact, know exactly where it was taking her, or she was more lost than she would have imagined possible. Despite occasionally passing landmarks that seemed familiar – over there, the entrance to the Great Hall, and on the other side, five minutes later, wasn't that the path to the Library that Fred had pointed out earlier? – she knew that it would have been foolhardy in the extreme for her to attempt to find any of those locations again on her own.  
  
Eventually, the cat slowed, sniffing at the air for a moment or two, and then jumped onto a low banister next to a familiar looking painting of a landscape. She stepped close to the painting, trying to see it in the darkness, and placed a hand on the frame as she leaned in, her face mere inches from the canvas. And she promptly jumped back when the frame slid away from the wall to reveal a rather mundane looking doorknob.  
  
Banishing all thoughts of Lewis Carroll from her mind, she cautiously turned the knob, opened the door, and sighed with relief when she discovered what were surely her rooms. After all, what other room in the castle would be painted the color of a purple M&M, and would have her trunks neatly piled in the corner?  
  
She turned back outside to thank the cat again, but discovered that it had disappeared. She shrugged; it was hardly an unexpected action for a cat, but she hoped that she would find it again so that she could thank it properly. She probably would have ended up spending the night with the squid for company, out by the lake, if it hadn't been for the cat's directions. She sighed, scrubbed at her face with her hands for a moment, and went inside after casting a very similar set of wards on her own doorframe. She put a few more variables into her wards – she wanted to allow both Mina and Draco free access to her rooms, within reason – the wards would not let either of them in if the other were present, but would be much gentler in blocking them than they would be towards anyone she didn't know. She decided to install a doorbell charm in the morning, but for now, she was too tired. Sleep first; she could finish her rooms later, before breakfast.  
  
She checked her watch - ITwo-thirty in the morning, no wonder I'm tired, I've been up since what, yesterday?/I She had spent a full day packing, and spent several hours last night online saying goodbye to most of her friends, and making arrangements to visit a few in Europe, before Apparating to Hogsmeade in what was locally midmorning. So... she had probably managed to break her current record of thirty-three hours with no sleep. At the moment, she was also too tired to do the math required to figure out precisely how long she'd been awake.  
  
She didn't bother undressing herself any more than she had her cousin. She didn't even bother turning down the covers of the bed. Instead, she just collapsed across it, pulled a pillow under her head, and kicked her shoes off; told herself to wake up in six hours, and promptly fell asleep.  
  
hr  
  
Breakfast the next morning was a strange affair.  
  
Nearly everyone Kate had met the day before –at least, of the ones whose names she could remember - was either avoiding all conversation or trying desperately to make eye contact with her. Some people fit into both categories, including Fred, Mina, and Draco. Ginny Weasley seemed to be glancing equally at Draco and Mina while pretending to pay attention to a conversation about Quidditch between Ron and Harry. At least, Kate assumed that they were talking about Quidditch. There were too many swooping gestures for it to safely be about anything else, and if it was, she decided she really didn't want to know about it.  
  
Kate felt like blessing whoever had arranged for her and Fred to sit at the High Table, should they choose. It meant that she had the option of hot coffee for breakfast. She had certainly never been any sort of morning person, and aside from twitching a few pieces of toast onto her plate, she completely ignored all food in favor of strong coffee with cold milk. Although it had always scandalized all her friends who were coffee "purists," that she would not drink coffee with steamed milk, or for that matter milk heated in any way, she strongly felt that the ability to use her taste buds overrode tradition. In short, she liked being able to taste her coffee, and drink it quickly, without scalding her tongue.  
  
Having gulped a large mug's worth of the beverage, she felt slightly more prepared to deal with the day. She raised an eyebrow at what was considered breakfast food there – aside from the toast, and some fresh scones with clotted cream, nothing looked particularly appetizing. She doubted that she would be able to add cold pizza to the breakfast menu, but seriously considered having her parents send her some Corn Bran in their first care package of the year. She had long ago learned the charms required to keep bugs and small animals from being attracted to food in places it didn't belong; it was the only way her mother had ever let her eat in her room. She felt confident that she'd be able to keep some food squirreled away in her rooms here. Quite possibly, the sooner she had some, the better.  
  
She played with her toast, still yawning behind the back of her hand. Six hours asleep after thirty-six awake simply wasn't enough, even if she still remembered an old boyfriend's trick of "power napping." In short doses, it would increase the rest gained from a period of sleep up to four times as much; unfortunately, when one went to sleep alone, it would only add half as much time as the original. And nine hours' sleep wasn't much better than six.  
  
She jolted out of a doze - Idamn coffee, never kicks in fast enough/I - to a Hall that was nearly empty, and to hear her name being repeated.  
  
"Katharine? Katharine? Are you okay? Katharine? It's time to go, Katharine..."  
  
"Huh? Fred? Oh... what?" She rubbed her hand across her face, shaking her head, trying to wake up again. "Oh! Crap... are we late to meet the Headmaster?" She lapsed into muttering again. "Curse the little green god of fabric remnants, why does this have to happen today?"  
  
Fred looked at her, quite confused by the last thing she'd said. "No, we're not late... well, not yet, but if you don't get a move on, we will be." He grinned at her, to take the sting out of his words. She yawned, leaned back in her chair to stretch her back, gulped a small glass of orange juice, stood, and waved at him to lead the way. Once they left the Great Hall, he paused for a moment to let her catch up, and then offered her his arm.  
  
She took it, gratefully, and used it as an excuse to lean a bit closer to him. "You don't suppose there's a map of this school somewhere, do you? I got so lost last night... I had to follow a cat to my rooms, actually. No idea how it knew where they were."  
  
At the mention of a map, Fred's face lit up for a moment, quickly replaced by suspicion. "I... wait... a /I? I thought Malfoy said he was going to take you to your rooms. What, did he just dump you outside or something? If he did, I'll–"  
  
"No, no, nothing like that, silly. He fell asleep, we were talking till two in the morning, and I didn't want to wake him back up, he's got classes today. So I left his room, and then I realized, down in the dungeons, that I had no idea where my rooms were, and then there was this cat, and I asked it if it knew where my rooms were, and apparently it did. So I followed it, that's all, and I really wish I could find it again, because I didn't get a chance to properly thank it." She took a deep breath, and rolled her eyes. "Gods, and I tease Mina about not being able to tell a story without forgetting to breathe..."  
  
At that point, they had reached the gargoyle at the Headmaster's office, and continued in after a moment. Dumbledore bade them welcome, and to sit, and they did so.  
  
"All right, then, where were we... ah yes, your duties as Head Boy and Girl. Fred, I know that you probably have some familiarity with the concept, as Bill, Charlie, and Percy were all Head Boys in their years, and Miss LaFontaine, you were after all a prefect at El Dorado, were you not?"  
  
"Well, I was really more of an RA, and please, Headmaster, call me Katharine at least."  
  
Fred turned to her, confused. "What's an RA?"  
  
She rubbed the tip of her nose a moment as she thought. "Well, I'm not sure if it's a college thing or an American thing, but an RA – a resident assistant – is a student who takes care of some of the other students. Usually, it's an upperclassman, and if the school has any, they'll have at least two – one for boys, and one for girls. El Dorado Academy had four, because EDA is a very small school – there weren't many more than a hundred students all told, and it took the place of high school really, so there were only four years instead of seven, like here. EDA passed itself off as a fancy private school, so while there were a lot of boarders – it's one of the best schools in the Midwest, but certainly not the only one – and there were quite a few students who lived either in El Dorado itself or in Wichita. I think there were even one or two who lived in Kansas City, but only the seniors. Anyway, as the RAs, my friend Eva and I would arrange activities for the students to get together and get to know each other better, and we'd also help anyone who was having any emotional or mental problems as best we could. We also did some tutoring, along with Joe and Nick, the two male RAs. We split up, and whoever was best in that subject would do the tutoring. Not too many students needed the extra help, since they could either get it from their friends, from the official tutors, or from the teachers. Although, most of the teachers lived in town... the RAs and the school's president were in charge of most of the disciplinary stuff."  
  
Fred looked as though her explanation hadn't helped his confusion much, but Dumbledore was beaming. "Excellent, Katharine, excellent indeed. You will find that your duties shall be much like what they once were. You are certainly welcome to try to arrange any activities you like, although I should advise you not to try to interrupt Quidditch. You will not be in charge of discipline, but you will certainly have a role to play, and you have the ability to take as many as fifty points from each students at any time. You will not be able to directly assign detention, but all of the teachers have been instructed to take your recommendations very seriously. And I ask that you feel free to tutor anyone who you feel needs it, assuming you can get them to agree to it. A few students have already made motions in this direction, most notably Hermione Granger, who is solely responsible for many of her fellow Gryffindors' abilities to pass Potions, and Harry Potter, who has given many of his fellow students a much more thorough grounding in Defense Against the Dark Arts than might have been the case." Dumbledore sobered at that, and sighed. "I also ask that you do what you can as a counselor to the students; there are many who will have found, over the summer, that things are not as they once were, to the detriment of many. And I believe that not all of them will be comfortable discussing such matters with their prefects. There will also, likely, be a few that the prefects are not comfortable discussing such matters with, and the prefects will be instructed to forward such students to you."  
  
Dumbledore paused again, his eyes locked on something behind the two students-who-were-not-students. Kate turned around, and saw a bird in reds and golds, with a tinge of blue at the end of its wings. IIs that... a phoenix? Surely it must be.../I She turned back to look at the Headmaster again. After a minute or two, when he didn't say anything, she glanced at Fred from the corner of her eye, and then addressed Dumbledore. "Sir?"  
  
He shook himself, and the twinkle returned to his eyes. "Ah yes, my apologies. There was one other thing, you see. Fred, you are surely curious why you were asked back to this school?"  
  
"Well, yeah, I was, a bit..."  
  
"I am not unaware of the great popularity of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, you see, and in these dark hours, I think it would be wise to allow a certain level of levity in these halls. Of course, our caretaker, Mr Filch, was most upset when half the outlawed items on his lists found their respectability again, and I ask that you not rub his nose in the matter too much. Also, I must ask that you not test any items on students who do not fully agree to be tested upon, and as such, I recommend that you use this form, or something similar, before doing so." Dumbledore reached into the top of a drawer in his desk and pulled a small scroll from it. He passed it across the top of his desk to Fred, who was trying unsuccessfully to squash an expression of glee.  
  
"Now then. I doubt that the students will know about your roles yet, so feel free to explain them to whomever you like. Most likely, within the week, your duties will start taking a decent amount of time to complete, but for now, you should have some free time. I shall see you at lunch, I am sure." And he dismissed them.  
  
At the bottom of the stairs, Kate turned to Fred. "Listen, could you do me a favor? Take me to my rooms, and then give me about a half hour, before you disappear off to Gryffindor all day?" She smiled at him.  
  
Having not been on the receiving end of one of her smiles before, Fred blinked several times, swallowed hard, and stammered weakly "Er... sure..." as she took his arm. He led her back to her rooms, unable to think of much to say, as she kept smiling at him. "I'll... see you in a little while, then...?" and he backed out of her rooms, still stammering.  
  
She smirked a little as the door closed behind him. She had a little bit of a weakness for redheads, and thought that her new cohort was quite... something. On the other hand, she needed to finish preparing her rooms, and she could at least start on them now.  
  
First things first – she would need a better version of her doorbell charm if she could expect students at odd hours. She decided to change the charm to something more like an intercom system. She started rooting through her bags, and found what she was looking for five minutes later – a nearly- empty Altoids can. There were only about a dozen mints left inside, so she ate two, and placed the rest on her desk for the moment. She knocked some of the powder out of the case, considered it for a moment, and then closed her eyes as she began to visualize what she wanted to Transfigure it to. In the end, it was a small not-quite electronic device, one that looked very similar to Alex's phone – she bit her lip and willed herself not to cry as she thought of him again – with a small screen and a few buttons, along with the cover. She thought a moment more, and then made it into something even closer to a replica of the phone – it had been a PDA, too, and she was itching to play Bejeweled again. She then took one of the mints, and Transfigured it as well, into a push button for the outside of her door. She ate another mint, and then took a third – or perhaps a fifth – and Transfigured it into a small speaker/microphone/camera set. She took the two ex-mints to her doorway, used a sticking charm to attach them to the wall, and persuaded the wall to create a small sign that said "Push Button For Entrance." Satisfied with its placement, she pushed the button. She smiled that her charm worked, as her new intercom beeper went off, and she lifted it to see her face looking down on the screen. IGood, the camera's working at least. I'll wait to test the rest of it later./I She closed the screen, which shut it off, and looked back at the painting.  
  
And then she looked again at the painting, much more closely. She laughed aloud. "Well, well, well... little god of sheep who eat lead paint, I can't believe it. That sly bastard actually got one of Grandma's paintings."  
  
"Your grandmother is a painter?"  
  
She turned around with a gasp and a hex on her lips, finding herself pointing her right hand at Fred. She bit of her curse and took a deep breath. "You really ought to be careful about sneaking up on people, Fred, you could get hurt."  
  
He laughed, a little. "How're you going to hurt me? You don't even have your wand out."  
  
She looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes. "There are more ways to hurt people than with a wand, Fred. Haven't you learned that by now?" Her voice was very soft.  
  
He frowned for half a moment before offering her his arm once again. "Didn't you want me to take you to Gryffindor today? I know that Hermione looked like she wanted a longer chance to talk to you today." It was hardly a smooth change of subject, but it did what it was required to do. She half- smiled at him, and took his arm.  
  
"Lead on, oh sneaky one!" And he took her invitation, and led her to Gryffindor Tower.  
  
hr IAuthor's Note: Okay, so I was hoping to get this chapter out on Friday, but even though I managed to write two scenes at work no less, it just wasn't really cooperating. On the other hand, I got to see the movie on Saturday, so yay!  
  
Credits: "Wesley" is of course from uThe Princess Bride/u by William Goldman – "his eyes were the color of the sea after a storm," plus he's blond, plus it's a kickass movie.  
  
The song is called "Things Behind The Sun," and it's by a folk singer from the seventies with a beautiful voice named Nick Drake. If my sources are correct, he died in his twenties, and it's a terrible thing that that happened to him. His currently-most-famous song is called "Pink Moon," and was featured in a recent car commercial – four people driving in a car with the top down under the moonlight, reach the party, decide "to hell with the party, let's go back to driving around."  
  
Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice in Wonderland," and the scene that flashed into my mind when the painting revealed the doorknob was the one with the talking door that wouldn't let her through, because she didn't have the key.  
  
For the record, my bedroom in my parents' house – the room I'm writing this in – is in fact the color of purple M&Ms, which are one of my favorite candies, and I take my coffee with either way too much sugar or cold milk. Either way, I won't drink it if I think it's too hot. And "too hot" means that nobody tries to steal my coffee once it's drinkable, which suits me fine.  
  
One of my ex-boyfriends taught me the trick of powernapping, after a five- minute scene in one of the dorm lobbies at 5 in the morning after an anime club party. Apparently it equated a twenty-minute nap. I can't do them to myself for the life of me, though.  
  
My RA my freshman year was named Eva. And, although I highly doubt she'll ever read this, just so she knows who this is if she does – EVA ROCKS!!!  
  
And my grandmother is in fact a painter, quite a good one, although she mostly does landscapes – there's a small paint sketch of me at about age five on the wall, in a purple shirt, with a purple balloon, in her driveway, near some purple flowers. I inherited my love of purple from my other grandmother, though.  
  
I'm going to try to put up at least one or two chapters this week, especially since I'll be gone most of next week up to Lilies War in Kansas City. However, if I get any chance, I'll do some writing while everyone else is recovering from their hangovers on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. grins  
  
Oh, and shame on me, I suppose, that this chapter didn't have any HG or SS in it. They will have their time, don't worry, but I felt it necessary to give a little more backstory on Kate, since after all, she's the only character we don't know. Besides, this story won't be only a HG/SS ship by any means.  
  
Enjoy the story, please R&R, and let me know if I screwed up any – I wrote this thing from about five in the morning till a quarter till ten. And even though I'm used to working night shifts, it's now bedtime.  
  
Lunzie 


	4. In Which We Learn of Quidditch Chess

Chapter Four, In Which We Learn Of Quidditch Chess, and Mina And Katie Eat In The Kitchens  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own it, never did, just taking them out to play, not making any money. But leave Katie alone, she's mine. grins  
  
hr hr  
  
Hermione looked around the Common Room as she entered it before lunch. She'd been more distracted than she liked to admit during her morning classes – fortunately, no one would pay any attention during History of Magic as they were all either asleep or talking to each other, and Hagrid would nearly let her, Harry, or Ron get away with murder. Besides, class let out early today when one of the Slytherins managed to set his hand on fire. As they were working with Undines – water elementals – Hermione was actually curious as to how he'd managed it. For once, it wasn't Malfoy who'd been causing trouble – Hermione couldn't actually remember if he'd even been in class that day.  
  
She was itching to go to the library. And she had no idea how she'd manage it – with the castle's expansion, rather a larger one than had previously been heard of, the Headmaster had ended up announcing at breakfast that while faculty and prefects could still access the library, any other student would have to be escorted, even for the regular library. It had been all she could do to keep from throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the Great Hall.  
  
Glancing around, she saw a large crowd at a table near the fireplace, all eagerly cheering on Ron and – Fred? She stepped closer, trying to see what was going on. She didn't notice that Katie was sitting in a chair in a corner, sporadically laughing.  
  
As she neared the table, quietly elbowing students aside, she wondered what was so engrossing. Harry noticed her progress, and shoved a few students out of the way before catching her by the wrist and pulling her forward. "Isn't it brilliant? It was Katharine's, apparently. She doesn't play, but when Fred and Ron started talking about chess, she brought it back from her rooms." And with a flourish, he brought Hermione level with the table and pointed at the game between the two Weasleys.  
  
IOh good lord,/I was Hermione's first thought. In a glowing translucent cube, about three feet to a side, was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. And considering that she'd spent the last six years of her life at a Wizarding boarding school, that really was saying something.  
  
It looked sort of like chess. Wizarding chess. Three-dimensional chess. Star Trek chess. With Quidditch players. Hermione blinked several times, and leaned in closer.  
  
There were about seventeen different boards in the cube, with gossamer threads linking some of them rather randomly. A few more than half the pieces were in red, and looked quite a bit like Ron; the others were gold, and looked like Fred. And they were all in robes, on brooms. Hermione studied further, and saw that there really were miniature Quidditch hoops on some of the playing boards. The quick movements of the pieces was starting to give her a headache, not to mention making her eyes cross; she shook her head to clear it and looked back up at Harry.  
  
"How on earth do you play it?" she asked him.  
  
He chuckled. "D'you know, I'm sure I couldn't – I'm a terrible chess player really, at least compared to those two. But the rules are actually pretty close to regular chess rules, other than the Quidditch additions. The pieces move the same – bishops move diagonally, pawns only move straight forward, and they can also only move on the board they started on, which is why there are so many of them." He nodded at two large piles, one of red and one of gold, to the outside of the cube. "Rooks move in straight lines – back, forward, left, right, up and down. The knights are a pain to keep straight, and the queen can move almost anywhere she wants to. Any square that's linked to another through one of the threads is considered to be next to it, and the pieces can move along it, except for the pawns. As for the Quidditch – to make up for not being able to move from one board to another, those that are on Quidditch boards can score points that way. If there's a straight line from a pawn to a hoop, and no opposing piece is blocking the way, and it hasn't scored a point yet, then you can have it score for its move. All the pawns have a Quaffle to begin the game with." He glanced down at her. "Honestly, I think Fred's a bit chuffed that there aren't any Beaters in the game, Ron's doing better on the Quidditch points too." He pointed at a small scoreboard in the center of the cube.  
  
"How do you know who's won, then?" She found herself entranced by the game, watching a large central board where the pawns were the only pieces left, all of which were moving to allow a final red piece its shot.  
  
"Well, there are two ways. One, like regular or Wizard's chess, if you can corner the other player's king, you win. On a board like this, it's very hard, of course – so that's why the other option is to catch the Golden Snitch. If you see it, then you can instruct any Pawn who's been turned into a Queen to start chasing it, and they'll do so automatically. Only Quidditch Queens, as the pawns are then called, can catch it. Apparently, Katie says games like this can go on for hours. The longest one she's ever seen lasted three days."  
  
"Where is Katie, anyway? I wanted to talk to her..." She was interrupted by a call from across the room.  
  
"I'm over here, you big booterdink! Now get your butt over here and talk to me." She glanced over and saw Katie now, sitting on one of the sofas, two mugs of tea on a table next to her. Hermione shoved her way back out of the group, which parted much more easily now that she was trying to leave, and flopped down on the couch next to Katharine.  
  
"You know, you're going to get in trouble with Professor Dumbledore for losing a Head Boy because of that game. Ron's going to beat him, and he won't be able to stand it, and he'll keep challenging Ron for rematches until he beats him. Only probably he never will, because Ron loves chess /I Quidditch far too much to ever throw a game. What kind of tea is this, anyway?" She took a deep breath of the steam rising from the mug Katie had handed her.  
  
"Voodoo, of course. It's been my favorite for years, you know that." They sipped in relative silence for a few minutes, watching the game.  
  
"Look! The snitch!" Harry pointed urgently to a board that had nothing else on it. Hermione chuckled.  
  
"What?" Kate asked her curiously.  
  
"Well, Harry's our house Seeker, I guess it only makes sense that he'd be the one to spot the Snitch." She smiled at her friend.  
  
Kate grinned back at her. "Well, I suppose I might as well leave the game down here... it's not like I'd play it back in my rooms ever. Never was any good at chess, and you know me, never much of a one for sports anyway."  
  
"Except for Zucchini Ball."  
  
Kate did a double take at that. "How did you... you mean you remember that? How could you? You weren't more than what, eight when we stopped playing?" She lowered her mug to the table beside here, staring at Hermione.  
  
With a true Mona Lisa smile, her friend replied, "Well, after all, it's the only sport I've ever been any good at either."  
  
Kate laughed. "True enough, I suppose. God, I've missed you, Mina. Want to go to the library and chat?"  
  
Hermione sighed. "I can't, the library's off limits except to faculty and prefects, what with the expansion and all."  
  
Katie rolled her eyes and reached over to knock lightly on Mina's forehead. "Hello? Anybody in there? Head Girl counts as faculty, or at least outranks a prefect, you spaz. Come on, you're supposed to be smart, use your brain, girl!"  
  
She chuckled at herself then. "I suppose you're right, then, aren't you? Like always. Come on, let's get out of here – nobody's going to notice, but if they do, I'm sure they'll figure out where we've gone."  
  
Kate jumped up from her seat. "That's the ticket! But – you lead. I have no idea how to get there still." She grinned at the slightly younger girl and waved her hand at the door.  
  
"Okay, just let me drop off these bags – we probably ought to go to lunch before too long, but I have a free period after – and besides, you need to know how to get to the kitchens anyway, don't you?" Mina grinned back, just as mischievously.  
  
hr  
  
An hour and a half later, Mina jolted back to herself with a growl – from her stomach, at least. She looked at her watch and realized that she barely had time to get to the kitchens, talk food out of the house elves – they never had quite forgiven her for S.P.E.W., and if Dobby wasn't there, it was quite hard to get any help – and get to Potions for her afternoon classes. "Oh crap. Katie? We need to go..."  
  
"Hmm?" Katie almost looked up from the book she was studying. She moved her head so she was facing Mina, but clearly was still reading.  
  
"Katie! Quit reading!"  
  
"What? It was interesting, I'm sorry..."  
  
"Look, don't worry about it, Madam Pince will probably let you check it out if it's that interesting, but if you want to get anything to eat before dinner, now's the time to go, is all." Hermione was sorting through the small pile of books she'd collected when they first entered the library, deciding which she wanted to talk Madam Pince into letting her check out. ITransfiguration's useless for this... Charms might do, or Potions... not a chance in hell I'm going to try Divination before a last resort... and I don't think Arithmancy will be very helpful.../I  
  
In the end, Kate had a stack of five small books about psychology, and Mina had three – two on Charms that might do, and one very old one on Potions. They started searching for Madam Pince.  
  
They found her, nearly trapped behind three very large bookcases she hadn't noticed closing in on her, and persuaded her to allow them the books for the week. If it weren't for the fact that she knew Hermione so well – so she could vouch for Kate – and the fact that Kate was the new Head Girl – so she could sign for Mina – Madam Pince probably wouldn't have let them take the books. However, well able to recognize fellow bibliophiles, she let it pass with a smile and a warning – "No more books until the library's organized again, girls."  
  
"Yes, Madam Pince," they chorused, then catching each other's eyes, burst out laughing, and fled the library.  
  
They didn't stop laughing until Mina was tickling the pear in the painting to the kitchens.  
  
hr  
  
Hermione had looked surprised when Kate took charge as they stepped into the kitchen. She had a much firmer grasp on the role of house-elves than Hermione had had. Without any pretense at equality, she had greeted the elf – one named Freedo, of all things – and explained that as Head Girl, she had prevented a student from going to lunch, and now wished to make amends with a few sandwiches and some milk. Freedo had looked positively thrilled at the job, and returned moments latter with several platters of sandwiches, glasses, and pitchers of both cold milk and pumpkin juice. Kate thanked him, and immediately dismissed him.  
  
"How can you be so cold to them?" The question caught Kate off-guard.  
  
"Whatever do you mean? I mean, have you seen the way some people treat them? My uncle hit me once, for being 'too nice' to them, he said. My father punched him and threw him out of the house, and we never saw him after that except at family reunions, but for pete's sake I was only five – it made a big difference to me at the time. I've tried very hard to be fairly polite to them; I've never punished them. I treat them the way I would treat any servant - I give them the job I want them to do, and when they do it, I thank them, and let them leave. I don't see how that's all that cold, Mina."  
  
Hermione's angry response died, unspoken, on her lips, leaving her almost speechless as she listened to her friend. "God – Kate – I'm sorry, I didn't know – "  
  
Kate shook herself a little, and smiled at her friend. "Look, don't worry about it, Mina. Eat your damn BLT before I steal it, okay? Just... remember, I've got a different attitude towards a lot of this world than you do. Not your fault or anything, but I grew up in a lot of this, and some impressions of the world are hard to get rid of..."  
  
"Of course..." Mina still looked a little bit flustered.  
  
Kate sighed, exasperated. "Look, seriously, don't worry about it. I've learned to deal with it, and a lot of the elves seem to prefer my way of treating them, actually – my dad has begged me to tell them to obey him as well as they do me, for that matter. Even after the episode with Uncle L-" she swallowed – "Uncle Luke."  
  
They sat in silence for a moment, no noise but the hum of the school, the quiet movements of the elves, and the sounds of chewing and swallowing. Eventually, Hermione asked Katharine a question about the books she'd checked out, and they spent half an hour quite pleasantly discussing Kate's choices. The award for "best title" went to one work called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Idiots" and dealt with helping teenagers deal with broken hearts. Kate sighed.  
  
"That's the one aspect of this job I'm really not looking forward to. I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating. That's the one thing I was really happy about leaving behind after El Dorado, dammit! I never had any interest in the subject even when I could have been taking the opportunities implicit therein, why the hell would I want to be a spectator again?" She continued grumbling for another five minutes or so on the subject, as Hermione sat back and chuckled.  
  
She was about to reach for another sandwich when she caught sight of her watch and bolted upright. "Crap! I'm going to be late for Potions!" She started gathering her books together hurriedly.  
  
"Listen, Mina, why don't you take me with you? That way, if somebody sees us running in the halls, they won't dock you any points, and if nothing else, I'll maybe know where the Potions classroom is. What do you say?"  
  
"Fine, that's fine, here, take my library books with you, would you? I can't have them in class, Snape will yell at me – and let's hurry up and go!"  
  
They hurried up and went.  
  
hr hr  
  
Author's Note:  
  
As for Quidditch Chess, I hardly know what to say. The idea came to my head fully formed, as I was starting the scene – I was going to have Kate come in after dinner and find Mina, but realized as I reread the end of the last chapter that she was already headed there after talking to Dumbledore. But I wanted them to meet up so they could go to the library, and then poof the idea was there in my head. I know that my mother has a game of 3D tic- tac-toe, played with these beautiful crystal marbles – used to drive her crazy stealing the blue ones – and I know that I've read of 3D chess somewhere. And I think I've heard of Star Trek chess, for that matter, and doing a very small bit of research gives me - which has some detail on Star Trek Tri-D chess. This game has a similar board, just... more. Like I said, seventeen boards, none of which are the same size (they're different shapes than just square, too), so it's a bit of a confusing game. Now I'm going to find myself some day trying to figure out how to build a board... sighs  
  
A very good friend of mine named Mel (my first adopted little sister, for all that she's older than me by a year and a half) calls people "spaztastic booterdinks." I don't know why. But I think Kate is based on several of my friends from Florida, including Mel, and that would be why she's calling Mina a booterdink.  
  
The Voodoo Tea is from a small shop in Manhattan, Kansas. I went through a pound of the stuff, more or less, and I still don't really know what it tastes like. It's been suggested that there's some peach in it, and it's very possible; all I know is the stuff is ambrosia.  
  
And as for Zucchini Ball, that's my uncle's invention... he found a tennis ball half-buried in one of his zucchini plants, and took an old green plastic paddle-ball paddle, and grabbed my older sister and I and took us into the backyard... the rules were pretty much like baseball, with a beautiful silver birch as Third Base. Since there were only three of us, we all had our own teams, and an unlimited number of "ghost players." I can remember my sister running from second to third, while I hit a double, and my uncle walking to stand between the two of us, trying to figure out where his ghost – who'd been on first base – had gone.  
  
Oh, and my mother's a librarian – believe me, when she gets involved in something involving books, it's next to impossible to catch her attention. I'm quite sure that Madam Pince wouldn't have noticed until much later if the bookcases had managed to close her in entirely. I think the castle has a sense of humor, even if it is on about a par with the third-year boys'.  
  
I have all respect for the "Complete Idiot's Guide To..." books. I actually own two of them, and I find them to be incredibly thorough and resourceful. I just wanted to use the title.  
  
Credit for the line "I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating" goes to my cousin, when she was talking to me this morning about HP fanfiction. Only seems fitting to return the line to the scene of the crime.  
  
Oh, and credit for my style of chapter headings goes to Patricia C. Wrede, if nobody else, in her lovely books uCalling On Dragons/u, /uDealing With Dragons/u, uSearching For Dragons/u, and uTalking To Dragons/u, which I have almost certainly gotten out of order. I'm sure other people have used this style of chapters as well, but she's the one I got it from, so to her the credit goes. 


	5. In Which We Go To Potions

Disclaimer: Don't own it, never did, just taking them out to play, not making any money. But leave Katie alone, she's mine. grins  
  
Chapter Five, In Which We Go To Potions  
  
Hermione came to a dead stop five feet from the door to the Potions classroom. Her face was completely white. From inside the room, Kate heard a low, sinister voice. "So, Potter, it seems as though Miss Granger really does do more in this class than keep the inept Mr Longbottom from melting three cauldrons a day. It would appear that she also holds your ability to think."  
  
"Oh no..." Hermione breathed. "I'm late... and I was going to ask him – " She clapped a hand to her mouth, holding back whatever she had been about to say.  
  
Kate glanced at her for a long moment, and made up her mind. She grabbed Hermione by the wrist, scooped up her bag from where it had fallen unnoticed to the floor, and dragged her into the classroom.  
  
hr  
  
Snape was distracted from tearing into Potter by the entrance of the two girls into his classroom. The taller, whom he vaguely recognized from dinner the night before, dropped Hermione Granger's wrist and pushed her towards the empty seat in the back of the room. "Ah, professor, my apologies. I grabbed Hermione to show me around the castle, and I'm afraid I delayed her to your class. I hope she's not too terribly late?" She looked him straight in the eye, a slight smile on her face.  
  
He blinked, slightly surprised by her obvious lack of fear. Of course, she had never been his student, but apparently no-one had told her of his reputation, either. IOr perhaps they have,/I he thought, as her smile started to fade. He felt his eyebrow raise without conscious thought. "Indeed, Miss...?"  
  
"Katharine LaFontaine, sir. Head Girl. Or whatever."  
  
Her face, not quite one he knew, combined with the name, started to tickle the back of his mind with a mostly-forgotten memory. He shelved the thought for the moment, and frowned at her. He glanced at the back of his classroom, where his student had seated herself and was trying very obviously to be invisible. "Thirty points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, and you should know that it would have been a detention as well had Miss LaFontaine not spoken for you. I will not tolerate tardiness. This is the first day of class, Miss Granger, and I highly recommend to you that you not continue this as a trend for the rest of the year." His voice had dropped, and become very quiet. It was clear that every student had heard him nonetheless.  
  
"Professor? I have a request for you, sir."  
  
His eyes snapped back to the interloper in his classroom. "What is it?" he hissed.  
  
"Well, sir, I was hoping that you might allow me to audit a few of your classes. Professor Daigné at El Dorado recommended your work most highly when I told her I was coming to Hogwarts, and mentioned her great disappointment that she was unable to convince you to be a guest lecturer, especially as she had to make do with that Munkfrede ass. If you are a quarter as good as she said you were, you would blow him out of the water, and it would be in my own best interest to sit in on your class, if you would let me. I promise I'll stay out of the way, if that's what you would like, and I would like you to know that I haven't melted a cauldron in years. And it was only the once, anyway, and it really wasn't my fault." She ran out of words, and stumbled to a stop, biting her lip.  
  
Her sheer nerve at once both infuriated him and intrigued him. He knew of no student who would willingly take his classes were they not either required or recommended for graduation; in his years teaching, he had only had a few students who truly loved the art and science of potions making. Never had he had any student ask to take his class when they would receive no credit from it.  
  
Still, perhaps he would have refused, but he remembered Tenu Daigné very well. He recalled her invitation, also. She had asked for him to come in late August, or perhaps over his Easter holidays. He had not been able to do so, and had not been able to explain why. His position in England was fairly tenuous at the time, and there were other things he had needed to do – things he had been required to do, although he had not wished for them.  
  
She was the reason he knew his way around Kansas City.  
  
And to learn that when he had been forced to refuse her invitation, she had gone and asked that oaf Munkfrede to take his place... The knowledge hit him, like a door slammed in his face. It shook him badly, and only years of ingrained habit kept him from showing an ounce of it to those in front of him, every eye in the classroom fixed firmly upon him, and waiting for his reaction to this extraordinary request.  
  
IBesides, it would appear as though the student at least, if perhaps – maybe – not her teacher, shares my opinion on that dratted Munkfrede...would it be so bad, to have someone who wanted so to learn?/I  
  
He kept his voice very low, although he let the cruelty leak out of it. "Are you so very sure, Miss LaFontaine, that you wish this thing of me? There are many who will think you quite insane for such a request, you know. I myself am not convinced that you are not. Is there so much to gain from watching me take points from these foolish Gryffindors that you would spend hours in the dungeons for no obvious gain?" He held his breath, although he never would have admitted it, waiting for her answer.  
  
She smiled then, a real smile, directed entirely at him. And she laughed, although it was for only a heartbeat. "Silly man, of course it's worth it, you're the most brilliant Potions Master in a century, aren't you? It would be utterly stupid of me to throw such a chance away. And even the teachers who most disliked me would have to grant me that I am not /I stupid." Her eyes flashed at him, and she sobered. "Please, I would like this very much, sir."  
  
He considered her for a moment, and then realized that he'd already made up his mind as soon as she had finished her first sentence. He felt one corner of his mouth crook slightly upwards, no more than a few millimeters, but the furthest it had moved in an unprompted smile in years. IVery well, Miss LaFontaine, you have your chance to prove whatever it is that you need to. I hope, for your sake, that the results are to your liking. /I  
  
He let out a sigh, one that hinted – broadly, with a sledgehammer – of much suffering, and the call for patience that was overused and therefore in minimal reserve. "/I," he spat, "but do not think that if you disrupt my classes you will not be punished. I may not be able to take points from your house, and I may not be able to give you detention, but rest assured that I /I have control in this classroom." She smiled again at him, and quickly seated herself in a dark corner of the room, one from which she would be able to see and hear without being in anyone's way.  
  
INow why did I say that?/I he found himself wondering. Perhaps she unnerved him more than he had thought. He narrowed his eyes, frowning at his class, who quickly and overindustriously returned to work.  
  
hr  
  
Kate sat and silently laughed to herself at the antics of the students as they tried to avoid Snape's gaze by a strange combination of productivity and fear. It reminded her of a bumper sticker she had once seen – "Jesus Is Coming! (Look Busy!)" She watched as he swept back to the front of the classroom, a scowl on his face. He started writing on the board, clearly having interrupted himself in the middle of the instructions for a potion to berate Harry before she and Mina had come into the room.  
  
She contemplated the board for a moment, and glanced at the students, most of whom were now taking notes. Although a few seemed to have dicta-quills, the rest appeared to be writing laboriously with quills. IScrew /I Kate thought with a snort. She did not care for having her hand all cramped from writing, and the dicta-quills looked messy, not to mention slow. She thought for a moment, and realized that she'd started idly fiddling with her new toy, the pager end of her intercom system. She told herself that she was not tempted to play Bejeweled. Really.  
  
A memory froze her for a moment, then, and was followed by an evil grin. She pulled out a pen from her bag and thought for a moment, and quietly Transfigured it into a small three-legged stand. She looked at her pager for a moment, and spoke a charm over it as well, and then set her new camera phone in its tripod, pointed it at Snape, and told it to begin recording. She sat back then, to listen fully. She had never been any good at taking notes and paying attention at the same time. 


End file.
